QNAP TS-119 Turbo NAS Review

QNAP, purveyor of Network Attached Storage devices large and small, has just recently introduced what it’s calling the world’s most affordable NAS server with iSCSI. The device they speak of is the single-bay TS-119 Turbo Pro, which we’ve taken into our labs and scoped out across the pages to come. The device itself is just marginally larger than a typical external hard drive, and at first glance, that’s exactly what it looks like. The array of LED-backlit words down the front panel and the port selection around back give away its true nature, though, as this thing is built for networks from the ground-up.

For those unfamiliar with the technology, a NAS drive is — in its simplest form — a slice of storage that can be accessed from any Internet-connected machine, so long as it’s connected to a networked PC or a router via Ethernet. Or, if the machine is local to the network on which the NAS drive is connected, that statement could end with “any network-connected machine.” Put as simply as possible, a NAS is an external storage solution for those who need to upload and download files from their external drive anywhere, not just when on the PC to which it’s connected. The “networked” nature of these units make them extremely appealing to businesses small and large, as their employees can login from anywhere and access company data. This same fact has begun to increasingly appeal to on-the-go consumers, who simply cannot go a week, a day or even a few hours without needing to share data with a hard drive that’s physically located in a place other than where they are.